Questionable Advice
by Amateur Marauder
Summary: Choji mistakes and lets his feelings for Ino slip. However, when his best friend Shikamaru tries to offer him some advice, someone beats him to it. And this someone is the last person anyone in the Leaf would expect to offer advice, whether it be good or not.


Ino Yamanaka, Choji Ackimichi and Shikamaru Nara walked through the busy streets of Konohagakure with the hot sun beaming directly over their heads. The village was in the midst of its biggest rebuilding project after the village was completely destroyed by the Akatsuki. The people had plenty reasons to be distraught, but their spirits were higher than ever and optimistic moving forward from this attack.

The team just completed their fifth mission in the short time period of four days. Needless to say, the most recent incarnation of the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho combination was more exhausted than they ever thought possible. Shikamaru's motivation was as low as ever, as if such a thing was capable of happening. Choji hadn't eaten since breakfast, and claimed that he could literally "feel his weight falling off of himself." Ino, and in her opinion was the worst off the three, was dirty and she hardly had time to visit the bathhouse this week. The silver lining in these minor dark clouds for Team Asuma was that the entire team had a day off tomorrow. Seeing that this was their only day off for the foreseeable future, they had to make it count.

"Oh, man I am tired!" Choji sighed, his stomach growling at him in anger. "Who wants some barbeque?"

Shikamaru walked with his hands in his pockets, and rubbed the back of his head as he realized just how filthy his hair was. He made a mental note to visit the bathhouse. "Yeah, this whole week has been a total drag. At least tomorrow is our day off. I hope that's not a drag either."

"Yeah. You're right. It's been ages since we had a day off. We probably won't get another for a long time." Choji added.

Ino had heard enough of her comrades consistent complaining. She stopped her walking and turned to face her teammates. "Stop it you two! The constant complaining! Ugh! Just be grateful we got a day off with everything that's going on!"

Shikamaru sighed. He knew what was next. "Here she goes again."

Ino's eyes hilariously turned white and were about as large as dinner plates. "WHAT WAS THAT, SHIKAMARU!?" she yelled.

"Tch… it's not worth the effort in repeating myself." Shikamaru mumbled.

"Grrrrrrrrr!" Ino scowled, her teeth grinding.

Choji chose to break the tension and change the topic slightly. "Well, uh. How are you spending your off day, Ino?" Choji asked.

Ino looked at her other comrade, her anger remained unsubsided. "I don't know yet! But for now I'm going to go to the bathhouse and take a long, hot bath! Then I'll worry about my day off! And if either of you are causing trouble it will not be pretty when I see you!"

She turned on her heels and stormed off from the two boys. Shikamaru closed his eyes and sighed. However, Choji had different plans for the young Yamanaka female.

Choji's arm reached for her as he saw her backside move away from him. "Well, I was wondering if you wanted to go-"

Ino walk away so quickly, she was no longer within earshot by the time Choji opened his mouth. It also didn't help matters that Choji mumbled his question either. Shikamaru looked at his forgotten friend, frustrated it took him so long to connect the dots between Choji and Ino that he grown accustomed to overlooking.

"Choji. You like her don't you?" Shikamaru asked with a sly grin.

Choji's face turned as red as his clothing. "Uh, I was just asking as a… comrade. And I didn't want her to be bored on her day off!" Choji folded his arms and looked away.

'_He is a horrible liar. I don't even need to pry for information.'_ Shikamaru thought. "Really, Choji? Are you sure? Like are you _really_ sure?"

Choji exhaled and slouched as he looked at Ino walk further away from them. Shikamaru is a true interrogator by the way it was so easy to get information out of people. Or maybe Choji was that terrible at keeping secrets, which would explain a lot. "Yeah. I do. A lot more than I should. But…"

Shikamaru raised an eyebrow. He wasn't one to give relationship advice of any kind. Especially in his case when he realized that his heart belonged to a woman three days away from his village. However he wasn't one to ignore a friend that needed consoling. Especially when that friend was Choji. "Well, why haven't you done anything about it?" he asked.

Choji exhaled again. "Well, because… look at her. I mean, she's perfect. Her face looks so beautiful. Her body looks so… amazing. Her smile is just so… radiant. I just can't resist her. And then look at me. She's out of my league, man."

Shikamaru sighed. He would have to stroke Choji's ego harder than he originally thought. "Choji, Ino is like a sister to us. She's good looking and all- don't get me wrong. But she is basically our sister."

Choji pouted and sighed in depressed manner that is unique to specifically Choji. "I knoooow." He groaned. "But we're always around each other. I can't help it Shikamaru."

Shikamaru put his hand behind his head and sighed. He knew that Choji had virtually no shot with Ino. Not because she was "above his league." Shikamaru had grown to hate that statement and way of thinking. It was because Shikamaru could easily see Ino's heart and see who was in it. She was still stuck on the missing-nin; Sasuke Uchiha.

"Well… maybe you should just tell her Choji." Shikamaru advised, hoping Choji would be able to think of something.

Shikamaru was completely unsure about what to even say. How was he to console his friend?

Choji's face perked up. "You think so, Shikamaru?"

As if he was waiting for this exact moment, a pale and dark-haired ninja appeared before them. Shikamaru knew who this was, although he was unsure why he was here. Sai appeared and offered a huge grin in the face of the two ninja in front of him. Shikamaru could already see that this would be an even bigger drag.

"You should most definitely admit your feelings to her, Choji." Sai said, assured in his advice.

Choji's eyes became comically huge as Ino's did moments before. "SAI!? How long have you been there!?" he yelled.

Sai's grin became even wider. "Long enough. But you definitely want to go to Ino and confess your feelings for her."

Shikamaru was stunned. Since when did Sai _ever_ offer any type of advice? "You think so too, Sai?"

Sai patted Choji lightly on the right shoulder. "Yes. At the worst-case scenario she says no. But at that time you'll at least know where you stand in her heart. But I can't see any reason she says no to you."

Choji's face perked up and he grinned. "You really think so, Sai? That she'll say yes?"

Sai nodded. "Not a doubt in my mind."

Choji nearly leapt high in the air and clicked his heels together.

"IM GOING TO TELL INO YAMANAKA THAT IM IN LOVE WITH HER!" he bellowed in the middle of the street, his eyes pouring tears of pink hearts.

"Wait, Choji! You didn't say 'love!'" Shikamaru warned.

His words were too late. Choji sprinted in away and left a cloud of dust flying in the face for Sai and Shikamaru to cough on.

"AFTER I GET SOMETHTING TO EAT!"

Choji turned around and sprinted past Sai and Shikamaru faster than before, leaving Shikamaru and Sai in a bigger cloud of dust and another furious coughing fit.

"Sai." Shikamaru said, trying to stifle his urge to cough. "Did you really mean what you just said to Choji?"

Sai looked at Shikamaru and had another sly grin. "Honestly… no."

Shikamaru nearly fell to the ground. "What!? Why!?"

Sai took out a yellow book from his bag. "It's a book from Sakura. I've been making an effort to be friendlier. The book tells me to give your friends good advice and they'll come to like you."

"But why would you tell him that? You said there wasn't a doubt in your mind that Ino wouldn't reject him. You and I both know she will ignore him!" It isn't often that Shikamaru gets confused. This was the rare occasion that time came.

"Oh." Sai said nonchalantly opening the book and shifted his eyes across the page. "The book states that sometimes a person isn't looking for someone to tell them good advice. Sometimes they just need to hear what they want to hear in a different voice." Sai responded, a look of innocence on his face. In his mind, nothing he did was wrong.

Shikamaru understood. He shoved the palm of his hand into his forehead. "So rather than telling him that Ino is probably going to reject him, you reassured him that there was no way in your mind she could say no."

Sai nodded. "Exactly that, Shikamaru. Very observant."

Shikamaru hung his head. "This is going to be such a total drab. I'm outta here." He said.

With no further word, Shikamaru walked past his fellow Shinobi, bracing for the inevitable awkwardness in his team that was sure to follow.


End file.
